1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer-readable recording medium, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus capable of preventing loss of print data stored in a volatile memory of the image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer-recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus refers to an apparatus which prints print data generated by a terminal apparatus such as a computer on a recording paper, and examples of an image forming apparatus include a copy machine, a printer, a fax machine, and a Multi-Function Peripheral (MFP) which performs all of the above functions in a single device.
Recently, an image forming apparatus may be capable of not only printing print data transmitted from an external apparatus, but also supporting the functions which allow a plurality of users to approach and print pre-stored print data, and store it for security reasons so that the print data may be opened and output by an individual user.
As such, in order to store print data and use it for a printing job, an image forming apparatus needs a storage area for storing the print data. However, an image forming apparatus does not have such a large-scale storage medium in general, and thus it is not possible for the image forming apparatus to perform such an operation. Even if an image forming apparatus may perform such an operation, the print data is stored in a volatile memory. As a result, as soon as the power of the image forming apparatus is turned off, the stored print data disappears, causing problems.